Gathering to explore shoppers’ mind-set
A conference offering insight into the shopper mind-set will be held May 16 at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
The 2013 spring conference, Shop: Finding and Converting Growth Opportunities with Shoppers, is hosted by Mars Advertising and the Center for Retailing Excellence at the UA’s Sam M. Walton College of Business.
Stephen F. Quinn, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s U.S. division will be a keynote speaker along with Fern Grant, executive vice president, strategic planning for Mars Advertising; David Marcotte, senior vice president, retail insights for consulting company Kantar Retail; and Greg Silverman, chief executive officer with Concentric, which creates software that tests a variety of marketing scenarios.
The conference will be from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development at the UA campus. More information or to reserve a spot, visit the Walton College Center for Retailing Excellence website - cre.uark.edu - or contact Pam Styles at (479) 575-6812.
- John Magsam
Firm gets contract to safeguard chips
The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Space Photonics of Fayetteville a $1 million contract to make sensitive information on programmable chips harder to access by outside sources.
The two-year contract is for the company to work on limiting electromagnetic emanations, or noise, to protect the information on the chip, according to a news release.
The chip, also called a field programmable gate array, is used by the military and commercial businesses and can contain large amounts of information, according to the news release.
Space Photonics will work to develop ways to make it harder for outside sources to access data on the chip and to alter its contents.
Space Photonics, which announced the contract April 2, was awarded the work in September. The company, located at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, develops, markets and sells optical communications systems.
- Jessica Seaman
Index falls on news of slowing economy
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 1.23 to 260.03 Thursday.
“U.S. stocks continued to fall Thursday after economic data suggested slower growth ahead,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. “The Arkansas Index moved lower as 9 stocks advanced and 7 stocks declined.”
Acxiom Corp. shares dropped about 1.6 percent to close at $18.72 in light trading. P.A.M. Transportation shares rose about 4.2 percent to close at $11.25.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 25 on 04/19/2013